Keizer's Fungi Q & A.

[Fungus]

Further up in this tree there were two small developing brackets on this very dead/dysfunctional branch system.

Ganoderma sp it would seem ? possibly applanatum/lipsiense.

 

We can at least agree on that : Ganoderma cf. lipsiense on beech .

[armybloke]

Appologies Forum, but I'm doing exactly what I said to Tony that we shouldn't do, and that is hog this fine thread.

 

 

Don't apologise - this thread is too informative to stop or be stunted by protocol!

[Fungus]

These shots depict what I presume is a delaminated (from the decayed wood within a basal cavity of the Oak in shot 1) Melanine sheet, showing both the outer (black/brown) surface & the inner light/tan coloured surface.

Also posted for a pictoral comparison is the white Mycelial sheet that I stripped away from the brown cubical rot of a Laetiporus affected Oak trunk.

My question is/are......

1. Why the difference in colour & texture to the Melanine sheet sides ?

2. Also, is this the same (or not) as a psuedosclaratial plate (like these ones) , often seen defending decay zones across sections of cross cut trunks/branches.

3. Finally, are both the Melanine & Mycelial sheets made up from similar myco building blocks ?

 

David,

1. Because they probably are not regular rhizomorphs, but plaques of Armillaria, with the air exposed outside black melanine layer protecting the vulnerable inside hyphae - which colonize and slowly decompose the upper layer of one side of the dead delaminated wood and cause the pale brown decolouration of the wood - against acids and attacks by insects and parasitic microfungi or bacteria. I'll later post a photo of this type of pale brown (white) rot caused by the primal hyphae of Armillaria, which were before protected by a melanine layer.

2. No, the black outside of Armillaria rhizomorphs and plaques is melanine based and the colouration of the black demarcation lines of the mycelia of wood decomposing macrofungi bordering the individual territories are self-produced fungicides (and antibiotics) based, i.e. traces of there defensive "weapons", locally turning the wood black.

And the white mycelial sheet presented could well be of Laetiporus sulphureus.

3. No, see 1. and 2. And the picture of the cross section seems to be of a beech, which makes the presence of defense barrieres especially produced by beech to keep the mycelium of Ustulina deusta inside the heartwood and prevent it from growing outwards towards the cambium through the radial rays.

Conclusion. There are three types of black layers : melanine based Armillaria plaques, demarcation lines of different species defending their territories with their defensive weapens (fungicides), which cause the wood to blacken and defensive lines formed by the tree and triggered by the mycelium of Spaeriales, such as Ustulina deusta.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Fungus

[Fungus]

Because they probably are not regular rhizomorphs, but plaques of Armillaria, with the air exposed outside black melanine layer protecting the vulnerable inside hyphae - which colonize and slowly decompose the upper layer of one side of the dead delaminated wood and cause the pale brown decolouration of the wood - against acids and attacks by insects and parasitic microfungi or bacteria. I'll later post a photo of this type of pale brown (white) rot caused by the primal hyphae of Armillaria, which were before protected by a melanine layer.

 

Photo 1. Quercus robur with bark (and attached rhizomorphs) falling of, because of the pressure of the rhizomorphs and plaques attacking the cambium and while swelling filling the cambium space, with the formerly present melanine plaques protecting the hyphea, which partially superficially have white rotted the dead wood causing a pale brown decolouration.

Photo 2. Detail of the trunk of the same tree. To the right you can see the pattern of the imprints of the rhizomorphs in and behind the cambium zone and at the bottom, there still is some of a melanine plaque present.

Edited May 9, 2011 by Fungus

[David Humphries]

Don't apologise - this thread is too informative to stop or be stunted by protocol!

 

 

 

The thread won't stop, but it would be a little more encouraging to see Gerrit getting Q's from others

 

This isn't the Hama & Monkey School tha knows

 

 

Get posting troupers

 

 

 

.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

The thread won't stop, but it would be a little more encouraging to see Gerrit getting Q's from others

 

This isn't the Hama & Monkey School tha knows

 

 

Get posting troupers

 

 

 

.

 

At first I thought it was the "right thing to do" but you started posting and I realised that you and me probably ask the sort of questions others might be less inclined to, so were learning, and everyone else gets as much benefit as we do.

 

EVERYONE has as much oportunity to ask, and post here, so I cant see it really being selfish on our part nor detrimental to this very fine thread, which I might add has some pretty good information in BECAUSE were posting.

 

so I nor you should be feeling guilty over a little keeness!

[David Humphries]

At first I thought it was the "right thing to do" but you started posting and I realised that you and me probably ask the sort of questions others might be less inclined to, so were learning, and everyone else gets as much benefit as we do.

 

EVERYONE has as much oportunity to ask, and post here, so I cant see it really being selfish on our part nor detrimental to this very fine thread, which I might add has some pretty good information in BECAUSE were posting.

 

so I nor you should be feeling guilty over a little keeness!

 

 

Not feeling guilty at all.

 

I'd lock gerrit up in a vault & just wheel him out specifically just for my own selfish fungoidial needs, if i was a tad more selfish

 

 

just thought I'd give the oportunity people have here a polite wee nudge

 

 

 

.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

OI, YOU LOT!!

 

You will NEVER have it so good, now is the time to ask questions and get the answers, answers often you'll not find in any books, least not any i certainly know of!

 

get in!

[RobArb]

so what caused my tree to split out? was it the gano or the union or the age or all of the above?

 

and are there all sorts of gano now feeding on the carcass? or is it just one species?

 

which is more aggressive?

 

should this be in the gano thread:blushing:

[Fungus]

I'd lock gerrit up in a vault & just wheel him out specifically just for my own selfish fungoidial needs ...

 

You're giving me a fright to come to England in the maybe very near future !!!